Is Mariah Carey’s GRE Vocabulary Better Than Yours?
This incredible post on Gawker catalogues the rather prodigious vocabulary displayed in Mariah Carey’s oeuvre.
The post does seem to be making fun of Carey a bit:
Her lyrics are littered with, as she might say, peculiar words that suggest she is a vocabulary booster enthusiast. She loves her some adverbs. The result is a body of words that are rarely, if ever, heard in pop music.
(What’s a “booster enthusiast”? Considering that one definition of booster — and the only definition that really applies to a person — is “enthusiast,” I think “booster enthusiast” is a bit redundant.)
In any case, I read over the entire list of lyrics, lyrics like:
“I can’t be elusive with you honey / ‘Cause it’s blatant that I’m feeling you”
“Do you care for me beyond idolization?”
“I had a crush on you / Painstakingly I would conceal the truth”
“Keep pressing on steadfastly”
“Thoughts run wild as I sit and rhapsodize”
“After so much suffering I finally found unvarnished truth”
“My defenses start to wane”
… and Mariah Carey is basically using those words correctly.
We think she’d do pretty well on the GRE! At least the verbal part.
Check out the entire list here.
Did you like this post? In the words of Mariah Carey, “I brings that levity.”